Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#270-75% is good efficiency. So did they use an existing old oil well? What are the construction costs of this? I mean it's great they built it quickly but I'm wondering if they built it quickly because the digging had already been done.
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#3Is this the same "minimal water loss" they define for all the leaking wells in west and south texas that threaten water supplies? https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/04/texas-leaking-abando...
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#4I'm not a geophysicist but it doesn't seem like impermeable rock would "inflate like a balloon" and even if it did, that seems like it would be a pretty bad thing for the surrounding countryside. Given that water infamously doesn't like to compress, I'm at a loss for how this thing actually works.
Does anyone have a better explanation than this article?
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#5More coverage of the broader geothermal renaissance:
Geothermal’s time has finally come
https://www.economist.com/interactive/science-and-technology...
And i found this interesting: https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/episodes/fracking-aust...
Seems fairly promising
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#6I'm not a geophysicist but it doesn't seem like impermeable rock would "inflate like a balloon" and even if it did, that seems like it would be a pretty bad thing for the surrounding countryside. Given that water infamously doesn't like to compress, I'm at a loss for how this thing actually works. Does anyone have a better explanation than this article?
I found "inflate like a balloon" a bit confusing/misleading. it's more like the fracture in the rocks expands(slightly) due to the pumping of water- and when the pump is turned off, the fracture goes back to a normal position pushing the hot water up. I am not an expert but I am really bamboozled by the reliability of this bc I imagine the rock/fracture will have to give away after some time(permanent rupture) or they will have to keep expanding the fracture.
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#770-75% is good efficiency. So did they use an existing old oil well? What are the construction costs of this? I mean it's great they built it quickly but I'm wondering if they built it quickly because the digging had already been done.
Have to wonder how they calculated that value... =3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s_theorem_(thermodyna...
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#8I'm not a geophysicist but it doesn't seem like impermeable rock would "inflate like a balloon" and even if it did, that seems like it would be a pretty bad thing for the surrounding countryside. Given that water infamously doesn't like to compress, I'm at a loss for how this thing actually works. Does anyone have a better explanation than this article?
I found "inflate like a balloon" a bit confusing/misleading. it's more like the fracture in the rocks expands(slightly) due to the pumping of water- and when the pump is turned off, the fracture goes back to a normal position pushing the hot water up. I am not an expert but I am really bamboozled by the reliability of this bc I imagine the rock/fracture will have to give away after some time(permanent rupture) or the…
It's a crack, not a void or a cave. The crack doesn't actually have significant volume (it probably does but all things considered it's tiny). It's like the space between two stacked bricks. Or maybe it's some permeable material like brick then sand then brick. You pump that full of water and you're basically lifting the bricks with hydraulic pressure. Gravity is what squeezes it back out.
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#970-75% is good efficiency. So did they use an existing old oil well? What are the construction costs of this? I mean it's great they built it quickly but I'm wondering if they built it quickly because the digging had already been done.
oil, and the inevitable gas from even a spent well would be a huge complication, which I think would get a big mention if they had ALL THAT!, worked out, as there are millions of retrofits then availible, right now
so.I think they are leveraging tech derived from the "drill baby drill" industry in dry rock, and adding water
Re: Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot
#10As a Texan, I can assure you that ERCOT will find a way to add 6 layers of middlemen, over extend capacity, and generally screw it up.
I watched it progressively get worse growing up. I don’t live in TX anymore, but I’ve still got family there and it’s more of the same.